77 



till it had covered the meadow sixteen feet deep. It 

 drew after it the body of the bog, part of it tying on 

 the place where the pasture-land was before, leaving 

 great breaches behind it, and currents of water, which cast 

 up noisome vapours. There are still cracks, and chasms 

 through the whole surface of the bog, which contains 

 forty acres. 



But we have a later incident of the same kind. On 

 Saturday, January 26", 1745, a part of Filling-Moss, 

 lying near Hescemb-houses, was observed to rise a 

 surprising height. After a short time it sunk us muclf 

 below the level, and moved slowly towards the south- 

 side. In half an hour it covered twenty acres of land. 

 The improved land, adjoining to that part of the bog, 

 is a concave circle, containing near a hundred acres, 

 which is well nigh filled up with bog ^md water. la 

 some parts it is thought to be five yards deep. 



An intense frost retards its progress fer the present* 

 but it is likely to spoil a great deal more land. That 

 part of the moss, which is sunk like the bed of the 

 river, runs north ai)d south. It is above a mile in 

 length, and near half a mile in breadth. 



Perhaps some morasses have been ever since the 

 deluge. In some of these are found, many feet deep, 

 whole forests .of timber, and frequently of such sorts 

 as have not grown in those countries for many ages. 



But some morasses are only of iate date. Lord 

 Cromartie gives a remarkable account of what .he him- 

 self observed with regard to the generation of such ft 

 morass. In the parish of Lockburn he saw, near the 

 top of a very high hill, a plain about a mile over. It 

 was then covered with a standing wood, but so old that 

 the trees had neither leaves nor bark left. When he 

 I came by the place fifteen years after, he observed all the 

 trees were fallen. A few years after that they were 

 I quite covered over with a soft spongy earth, which 

 formed a proper bog or morass. Many hav^e been 

 xmned the same way. 



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